


Try it on

by towards_morning



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23221915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towards_morning/pseuds/towards_morning
Summary: Sixshot and Ultra Magnus have fought all their lives for things greater than themselves. It's really quite exhausting.
Relationships: Sixshot/Ultra Magnus
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	Try it on

**Author's Note:**

  * For [privatepenne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/privatepenne/gifts).



> A request for SixMags from @Fauvester on Twitter turned into me having Many Feelings.
> 
> Broadly IDW verse, but also I care not for specific continuity so don't get picky, friends!

"Fancy seeing you here," Sixshot said. His tone was the same cavalier one Magnus had become used to over the years- landing somewhere between mild interest and tired recognition. Some miles hence Magnus could hear the rest of the battle going on. Shots firing, people yelling. Here, all that distance away, there was only him struggling up onto damaged elbows and Sixshot peering down at him, no weapons primed. They had flung each other out into this remote place, away from the din. Noone left to interrupt.

The silence stretched out between them as Magnus struggled and wondered whether he could find the energy to fire up his weapons. An explosion boomed behind them; and then Sixshot sighed and settled down beside Magnus. The shock of it was enough to leave him speechless.

"We seem to do this a lot," Sixshot said, tucking his legs to his chin as though this was anything but insanity. "Shame, really."

Magnus' weapons wouldn't come online. The armour's HUD only flashed low energy warnings, frantic and overlapping. In lieu of a more aggressive, code-approved approach, Magnus said, "We do." Him and Sixshot had met eight times now, fighting one on one each time. The last two had not only ended in a draw, but had concluded with Sixshot casting him a look he had no data to draw on for interpretation before leaving without taking the obvious potshots. Magnus had taken the pity to mean he was slipping. Everyone in the armour slipped eventually, after all.

Every second Sixshot stayed sat beside him sent Magnus' threat matrices into further panic. "Seems a shame, really," Sixshot said, not looking at him. Magnus tried to hold himself still. "Not often I meet another beastformer in the field, yknow."

 _Wait,_ Magnus thought, his innermost self freezing so completely it left him unable to respond.

It was as though he had hit pause on the universe. The slowing of time was enough to send Magnus into a panic in itself as he processed that, all other reasons to panic be damned to the pit. By the time Magnus choked out a simple "What?", Sixshot was already rolling his optics beside him.

"Like knows like," Sixshot said. "And Primus knows we've done enough over the years to know we're alike, huh?"

Magnus would have expected that kind of bombshell- _I know what you really are, you can't hide now-_ \- to be followed by something a little more dramatic than the tired collapse of Sixshot beside him, laying down fully rather than attack. The near-silence around them was undercut only by the distant boom of the battle far off. Sixshot continued, looking up at the dark sky rather than at Magnus, "I like when we fight, you know. Everyone else, it's the same old, same old. Always good fun with you."

Sixshot's frame purred in a way Magnus tried hard not to recognise as kinship. That particular rumble not recognisable to those who couldn't hear like beastformers, who didn't keep their audials pricked for similar mechs. Magnus- Minimus, he tried, he failed, and in his failure he felt more guilt than he had for the last ten vorn of a war that was nothing but reasons to feel shame.

The last four times they had met, Magnus had worried for his life. No- Minimus had, clenching his fist just in case, ready to trigger his last action before death, to send his life onto the next bot who agreed to be eaten alive by a legacy too great to bear. Each time, he had survived. Each time, both of them had limped away, eyes locked, a little more tired each time.

"I wouldn't call it-" Magnus started before cutting himself off. _No fraternizing with the enemy_. No matter how still it was here, no matter how Sixshot, who had always respected the rules of the battlefield, turned to meet his eyes. No matter how tired he was.

The silence stretched on while Magnus told himself he was too depleted to do anything else. And then Sixshot shifted beside him. Just a little closer, so that Magnus had to tell himself to ignore the way the other's plating brushed his own, the first touch that wasn't a threat he'd felt in a long while. "Well," Sixshot said, just barely touching him, eyes brighter than they had any right to be, "Why do you do it then?"

"Why do you?" Magnus said before he could talk himself out of it.

"Hah," Sixshot said, huffing a laugh. "Habit, really. One side's as fucked as the other, these days. May as well stay where I'm welcome."

That struck Magnus as false. He couldn't stop himself saying, "I don't believe you."

In the ensuing silence, with Sixshot still pressing just so against him, light but very real, he went on, unable to stop himself- "I have never enjoyed any fight, but I know you adhere more to codes of honour than the rest of your... peers."

"Maybe I just like you," Sixshot continued, tenser than his words might suggest. "Maybe I just figure it's more fun if I make sure we have a fair shot, huh?"

"Maybe," Magnus said, unconvinced.

Magnus finally gave up the ghost and let himself collapse onto his back. He found himself eye to eye with his conversation partner as he gave in fully. The sun was setting; their optics reflected off each other as they failed to move.

"You tired?" Sixshot asked, not looking away. Magnus wished he was better at understanding implication. He could tell the question meant more than strictly the words said, but he couldn't quite tell the exact request being made of him. Sixshot went on after a moment. "I know I am. The pit are we doing here, anyway? Not like there's gonna be anyone making room for either of us whoever wins. Like knows like," he repeated, optics suddenly sharper, "And our like hasn't got a chance, huh?"

Magnus wished he could say something stronger, but he only said, "I am tired, yes," and pretended not to see Sixshot's sympathy as he stayed collapsed and waited to see if anyone would come for him. Pretended not to feel the warmth at his side as the both of them listened to a distant fight. Pretended it wasn't a small, much needed comfort.

When Sixshot leaned in across their prone bodies, optics tired, Magnus let himself ignore the pretending and lean in too, letting a small warmth move through him as he brushed Sixshot’s mouth, the war continuing just those few miles away.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me yelling 24/7 about robots on twitter at [auto_thots!](https://twitter.com/auto_thots)


End file.
